Journey to Zufbar
by Terrene Flame1
Summary: This is about a group of Dwarfs goin' to Zufbar
1. The beginning

Grungi stared out into the darkness beyond the campfire, suddenly he spotted something, and then, just as quickly, it was gone. Bored, the old Runesmith gazed around the makeshift camp.  
Engineer Fili was cleaning his pistols, buffing them to a shiny gleam. Fili's brother, Kili stood near the fire. He was an ancient Dwarf whose beard stretched down to the floor, which allowed him the honourable title of greatbeard. Kili lent against his battle standard and swung his warhammer in hypnotising patterns, showing of his immense skill with the weapon. Balin of the Ironbreakers was polishing his armour, brining it to a reflective finish.  
One of the crazed Slayer cult, named Terrene the Wyrmslayer spared, in the corner, with an invisible opponent. Finally Grungi directed his gaze to the leader of the expedition. Thane Thorin was a magnificent and well-respected dwarf. He wore armour fashioned from the purest gromril and he held easily in one hand a giant hammer, which when thrown returned to his hand. Thorin's head was adorned with a crown made of the brightest gold.   
Grungi turned back to the darkness that surrounded their camp, and glimpsed far in the darkness what appeared to be the glint of steel, Grungi turned to call his fellow travellers when a ball of green fire came soaring out of the night. The dwarfs dived out of the missile's path and it hit the wall, dissipating into nothing. Another ball sailed forward, but this time Grungi was ready. Concentrating on the image of the fireball he then struck a glowing rune on his staff. Blue light came out of the ancient symbol and surrounded the fireball and nullified it. The rune now lay bare, with little trickles of energy entering the ancient carving on his staff. It will be awhile before I can do that again thought Grungi.  
The others turned to thank him when suddenly Scaven began pouring out of the darkness and set apon the brave adventures. Thorin threw his hammer at one of the incoming rat-men, crushing his ribs before taking the recovered hammer in two hands and charging into the fray. Fili fired off his pistols, making a hole in the heads of two approaching rat-things.  
Kili's magic standard fired out three bolts of lightning at the rat creatures, reducing them to dust. Grungi and Balin's warhammers smashed and cracked bone wherever they landed. The slayer Terrene held his mighty axe in one hand and spun a web of death through the scaven ranks, while screaming with joy at the slaughter. Faced with such casualties the Scaven scuttled, tails between they're legs back into the darkness, with the slayer chasing them, crying for blood.  



	2. CHARGE!!!

The dwarf warriors awaited Terrene's return while reload their weapons and treating their wounds. An hour later Terrene returned dragging thirty scaven heads behind him. "The tunnels are full of the rat-men, all the better for me but it will be difficult to reach Zufbar."  
Thorin replied "Difficult it may be, but we are not cowardly elves, we are dwarfs and we will not give up, we will reach Zufbar even if all the rat-men in the world stood before us." With that speech Thorin picked of his hammer and headed out into the darkness, closely followed by the rest of the dwarfs. Wearily Grungi rose from his seat, picked up his hammer and thrust it in his belt, then, leaning heavily on his staff; he followed the others into the dangers of the tunnels.  
The dwarfs trekked on in the darkness their dwarven eyesight allowing seeing as well as if it was light. The tunnels were silent except for the occasional squeak of rats. The hours passed and the rats' squeaking was heard more often. Soon the tunnel started to widen. Thorin announced to the group "be careful lads there be a cavern ahead and I can smell Scaven" The dwarfs carried on, more carefully and prepared for ambush at any moment. They arrived at the cavern without incident, but what faced them was even worse than an ambush.   
The cavern could easily fit an entire town inside it and it was full of rat-men. In the centre of the cavern was a mighty alter to some evil god of the rat-things, stood a Grey Seer, most powerful of the scaven, he was guarded by two massive Rat-Ogres hideous creatures mutated by the rat-men themselves. The rat-men had their backs to the Dwarfs and the Seer was threatening some one on the other side. Grungi stood on his toes and saw Dwarfs from Zufbar yelling insults at the rat-men. The leader fired a Crossbow at the seer and it pierced his shoulder and pinned him to his evil altar. The Scaven soared forth at the Zufbar dwarfs and Thorin shouted "Charge" and the noble adventures charged. The rat-men hardly had time to turn in confusion when the Dwarfs on both sides hit.  



	3. The Final Battle

Terrene, sighting the Rat ogres raced towards them, killing all in his path.  
Grungi turned to the centre of the battle where Thorin and the leader of the Zufbar dwarfs fought back to back. The old Runesmith saw the Grey Seer cast a spell at the Dwarven leaders. He activated his rune and it nullified the evil magic.   
All around him Dwarfs and Scaven were locked in a bitter battle to the death. At the altar Terrene had killed the rat ogres and was about head back into the fray when a mighty voice echoed over the battle field "Stop were you are Dwarf"  
The battle stopped as all eyes turned to the altar. Terrene turned around to see come out of the altar the Greater Daemon of the horned rat. This mighty warrior stood 10 feet tall and carried a long green-bladed broadsword in one hand and in the other, the skull of some long-dead fiend.  
Terrene excited at the prospect for an honourable death and his thumb along the edge of his axe, drawing blood. The Daemon swung at Terrene and the slayer brought the axe up to block and the sound of magic blade on magic blade rang over the battle. The Daemon and dwarf exchanged blows for only a few minutes, it felt like days. Suddenly Terrene launched him-self off the floor and flew over the daemon's head striking down as he went. The axe split the daemon head in two. A demonic scream made all in the cavern shudder interior. The dying daemon turned to the dwarf and trust his might blade into the slayer, killing him instantly. The daemon gave a cry of triumph before falling dead at the foot of the altar.  
The scaven, frenzied at the death of their god attacked the Dwarfs. Kili and Fili, fighting back to back were killed when a hoard of rat-men attacked them at once. Balin was killed by a spell from the Grey Seer, leaving empty armour and a pile of dust.  
Thorin stood in the centre of the battlefield killing everything he touched. Thorin was isolated from the rest of the dwarfs and before they could reach him Thorin was cut down. Grungi, bellowing with fury, charged into the battle, lusting for vengeance for his fallen friends, rat-men ran in terror from the frenzied Dwarf. The old dwarf killed one, two, three scaven with three swings of his warhammer. Grungi fought with might endurance, even for his race. The scaven, now terrified ran for their lives but as they ran, on of the rat-things stabbed Grungi in the back with a knife, the dwarf swung around and killed the rat but it was too late. The poison from the blade had entered his blood stream; he had only minuets to live.  
Gazing around the battlefield he could see the dwarfs from Zufbar chasing down the surviving scaven and he was pleased, the dwarfs had won the fight but at a terrible price, many noble warriors had lost their live. A stab of pain shot through Grungi's body, he knew he was going to die. There was only one thing left for him to do. He walked to Thorin's body, picked up his hammer and then headed up the stairs to the top of the altar. Taking one more look at his dead companions he cried out "For all of you my friends, rest in peace" With that Grungi brought the might warhammer behind his head and put all his remaining strength behind the blow. The hammer struck the altar shattering the stone into a million pieces. Grungi dropped the hammer and sunk to the ground. His thought's turned to the words of Thorin " We will reach Zufbar, even if all the scaven in the world stood in front of us." his last word were "Well my friend, all the scaven were before us but we did reach Zufbar." Then as the last word escaped his lips, his body slipped to the ground limp and lifeless.  



End file.
